Misspelling with Tory Spelling and iHeartRadio podcast. Then we came back around again, we did was it originally titled Friend to Die For? Or Death of a Cheerleader?
It was originally titled a friends Really it was that was the opposite. And then I think, when I want, I may be wrong about this, but I think when Lifetime, when it aired on Lifetime, they renamed it Death of a Cheerleader.
I'm pretty sure, okay.
Because what I watched last night had all the original credits and it was a front to Die For. So I have to say that it's a really good little movie. It really is, And there's so many talented people. And now when they make TV movies, because they're so cheap about it, they like barely have any supporting characters. There's just like the two leads and then like barely they barely give anyone else any kind of arcs or development.
And there was a cast of characters who were all interesting and talented and had dialogue and had like you cared about them. And it was shot in la and shot.
It never happens, wes.
Like I know, it never happened. So it was so nice to watch it and be like Wow, this was this really good little movie, and you were you were actually It's it's interesting because you were actually you were actually likable too. I feel like your character wasn't one dimensional, wasn't just like just the bitchy girl. Like your character was really likable. And then my character, who was actually a murderer, she was likable too. Like there was like you rooted for kind of both of them in a way.
I don't think you and I could not be like we have that quality. I've never had thing.
I've never played somewhat. I've never played the villain. I mean, I was the murderer, but she still wasn't the villain.
Weird would be a likable villain. Yeah, I was likable, bitch. It's just it's okay.
Yeah, So were you still doing nine O two one zero?
When we did it was because I think I was just finished with life goes on. I think life goes on, it just canceld.
So we started in nineteen ninety, right, We started in eighty nine and ended in and we ended in ninety three.
We were eighty nine to ninety three.
In ninety three, ninety four, Yeah, okay, I want to say it was ninety.
Four Okay, so like was on had just gotten canceled, I'm playing a killer, and I'm I'm in a dark place when I did that movie. Just like like I said, I was very methody, I was dark, I was I was this, I was this sad little person when I did that movie. So all of that every time I had to cry, like all that stuff like easy peasy, because I was. I was so devastated. My whole life was just the rug was just taken out from under me. Because when they can people don't know this, or maybe
they do. It's your family. I mean, when you do a series for four years, that is your family, and then when the network just decides to cancel it, like they're like okay, you can't see your family anymore. Your family's disbanded, and it's so devastating. So I know I was carrying all that into that movie that we did, into A Friend to Die for.
Well, I got to say, I never knew that because I remember thinking I was scared to see you because I was like, okay, we did Troop Beverly Hills, and they were the cool girls and they had their whole group, and you were always nice to me. But you were still with that group, and I was like, what's it going to be like? And then when you saw me, you were really nice to me, and I was like, I felt like we were equals now, and I was like, okay, I felt better. So yeah, I never saw any of them.
Oh, I'm so glad because I also was reading I remember I was also reading the Diarrheaman Frank, and that was getting me really dark too, you know, like I was in just a really dark place.
And chopping up cucumbers, you know.
I know, randomly the knife in the car, Like I don't actually what's funny is you know, now as an adult, like I would research the true story that we that we made. I mean, it's a true story, right, But I didn't at the time, so I don't even know if there just was a knife in the car.
I was going to ask you that because I never thought to do that. Like both girls were the real girls, and I never even thought like, and they didn't even encourage us, like, hey, girls, you might want to like do some research. We have some material nothing.
No, nothing, nothing.
And it was a fictionalized story, I know.
And it's crazy because I think the girl I played served seven years in Juvenile and then was released, and I do remember thinking knowing that there was that I was playing a real person, and knowing that I wanted to portray her as someone who made a horrible mistake as opposed to, you know, being being calculated and all of that. And I definitely wanted to portray her as someone who was worthy of compassion. That was kind of
like my driving force, I think. But yeah, no, didn't didn't research any of the real stuff.
I don't know, Oh my gosh. And all the friends. The friends were incredible, like Marle, Carlie Shelton, who else, Like every time I watch I see someone new, I know you.
Were in it. I don't, I don't.
And they all had they all had lines, and they all had like you all knew, you knew who they all were. Like TV movies aren't like that anymore. They just really aren't. They're just so bare bones now. And that movie was full and yeah, I actually like I watched it last night and I was like, this is a good little movie. And we are we were so cute, we were so young, we were so little. I'm actually I think I'm seventeen in the movie. I have a daughter who's seventeen right.
Now, You're like, don't do this, don't do this, don't kill the popular girl.
No, it's a move, it's a bad move.
How old is your old toy?
Seventeen? Really, my aldes at sudden is seventeen?
Is he senior?
He is a sixteen year old daughter?
Oh my gosh. Wow, we're going through the college application circus right now and it's consuming me.
Hey, it overwhelms me. I'm out. It was never my cham I'm just like, ask your dad.
Yeah, it's no, it's weird to think that. I like, when I was watching the last like, I'm like, that is the same age as my daughter now, And it doesn't make me feel old. It's just like wow, Like I was like, what a legacy doing this. I've been doing this for decades, you.
Know, forty over forty years?
What you look so young? And you say the number and it's like I know, I know, but so do you? I mean.
And that's also why when people meet us in person, they have no idea where where to put us in their mind, like we're either ten or we're twenty or what. We're definitely not our age, Like it definitely is not.
That thank goodness, Thank goodness. Okay, so friend to we had that experience and then they made the remake, Oh right, right, A friend and die for Yes, yes, yes, yes did they I think they called it a death of a cheerleader they did this time, Okay.
I think so. And I played an FBI agent, So I did like you did, re sints you did.
Yeah, I was. I was a little sad though that I was not contacted.
I'm sorry, toy. I had nothing to do with it other than I showed up for my three scenes. I did not produce it, because had I produced it, we would have called you my friend.
Well, when you do O g things, people want O GPS and that would be you and me.
That's true. No, You're You're absolutely right.
And when I heard that it was coming out, I even put a picture of you and I like our death scene on my feet and my Instagram like, oh look what's coming thinking that the.
Publicity shot up us like holding the night one. It's the funniest picture and.
Actually on all fours looking up your you're kind of like that.
And I'm like, and I'm very casual about it. I'm like, I've got a knife and I'm holding it over you. And the way that scene actually ended up in the movie is it's very blurry and you really don't see anything. I don't remember. I didn't remember that until I rewatched it and I was like, oh, yeah, you really don't see the murder. It's very impressionistic.
You just hear I am a horrible screamer, not a good love horror films, not a good horror movie screamer. But you can hear my life castle he sounds okay, yeah, yeah yeah.
And then like I get back in the car and I'm like, actually, my favorite part of the whole movie, which feels very out of it's like when it's on my face. It's actually before I come and stab you. It's like it keeps the frame keeps going like this, it's like on my face. And then I'm like, you know, like I was wondering, like what was going through my head when I was filming that, like about to kill someone, Like.
What is that feeling?
And then and then I'm sure we did that because it's the city, you know, it's the car. So they're like, okay, Kelly, we got that. Now you've just killed her. Okay. Action, So then there's like the post killing face, you know, and I'm like, it's crazy what we do. It's we have the weirdest jobs on the planet. It's crazy. That's actually something I think about this a lot, because I go to extremes very quickly in my real life, you know.
I do it with my children. I'm very cautious in whatever, and I go to like worst case scenarios like that is my like gohoji, I don't. I'm not modulated in any way, and I'm married to someone from Montana who's very calm, so drives them crazy. But I really think it's because of all roles we've played, like all the parts I've played like I've been kidnapped, I've been stabbed, I have stabbed like I I've done such extreme I've been taken hostage. So I'm not nor My reactions to things aren't normal.
I'm going to use that now on My ex husband used to be like, why do you act like this like you always think the worst is gonna happen? That's right, because hello.
It does and very real like for for reels, put ourselves in that position in order to tray the emotion that the convincing emotion that we need to give to people. So those so all those triggers did y'all all in there? So all it takes is for someone to press a button and I'm like, you know, I go crazy because I'm like, I know what it feels like to pretend get protected.
Such a valid point I might have understand.
But in therapy a lot too.
There's a chance.
I mean, that's amazing.
Did you start seeing a therapist as a kid, like Beverly Hills people, the people who have money. No, I didn't start seeing a therapist until uh twenty probably twenty years ago, and boy, was at a revelation.
I was like, really, oh my gosh.
Here all my suitcases full of sorrows and stuff. I'm just gonna put them right here and I'm open them up and let's take it out. And it was just like God, bless this amazing woman, Beth, God bless Beth. She just sat there and listened because I'm like, I got a lot of stuff to unload here. And then once you know, once that like big like wasn then like now it can be normal, it can be kind of like a just a session. But before it was like I had never seen a therapist and I've been
an actress since I was seven years old. I'm like, I got some stuff to talk about, and now it's reasonable, But before it was just like I didn't even know where my car was parked after a session beginning, I'm like, oh my gosh. Like also, my parents split up when I was doing Life Goes On when I was fifteen. My sister died when I was old. Was I twenty one, twenty two, twenty two, so like there was so much life stuff and then there was all this child actor shit r that I had to talk about. So it's
a it's been a journey. Thank God for Beth and my husband.
You had to keep working. You couldn't even process like a normal child, right.
Well. You know it's interesting is when my parents split up and I was doing Life goes On, I definitely channeled everything into my character because I played a girl g all who like to slam the doors, She like to like to yell sometimes. So I just put that all into my work. And I actually like and pretty much every TV movie I've ever done, I've had to cry a bunch so I get it out, you know, I use my job in that way.
My factor's version yeah, we're all a little method.
Let's be honest.
Yeah, it's true, it's true. Oh my gosh.
But the most interesting actors are people who've been through stuff. If you haven't been through stuff, you're not an interesting actor.
Hmm.
Patty Lapone told me that, So it's real.
Have you seen Agatha all along?
I haven't seen it yet.
It's so good.
My daughter's been watching it and she's like, my daughter, Maggie cannot believe that I am friends with Patty. I'm like friends with her, Like she's like my second mom. Like she's actually going to New York this weekend and we're staying with her. And Maggie's so excited.
I'm like, she sees her in a new light now totally does.
Yeah, And like Patty, she's seventy I think she's seventy six years old and her corner ye's on fire, on fire, And Matty's like, I can't believe you know Patty the poem.
I'm like, yeah, I know, Patty, that's crazy. I who love it.
Have they watched Lights Goes On?
No? I have them on VHS and I don't have a VHS, so my.
Dad doesn't stream anywhere.
It doesn't what it doesn't stream because is that possible?
Well, I was told they had some weird like music rights issues, so they couldn't sell it into syndication or stream. So no, my kids haven't seen it. But I have a big box of VHS tapes that my father recorded. He'd like play and record every Sunday night to record the episode, and then he would title the tapes whatever he thought the episode was. It's like quirky Dances or uh, it wasn't even like Tyler Tyler Benchfield got like killed in a car accident. And he's like, and he didn't
call it Tyler. He's like Tommy dies Chad gets aids like it's just like the craziest titles and it's just my dad like conflating their real names, and it's like it's the funniest.
Oh my gosh, we were just transferred over right, there's a place must be ice.
But you know, I just haven't done it yet. I need to because they're pretty amazing.
Oh such, and I got them.
Allow that was like my childhood show. Oh everybody, everybody, Yeah, I was like, yeah.
It was. It was a pretty massive experience for me. I hate to say that I peaked at thirteen, but that's I don't think I'll ever be honest shore like that again. It was amazing. I mean, like, yeah, it was cool to be cast in New York. But for as successful as that show is and how amazing that show is, nothing holds a candle to Life goes On. Nothing can compete in my in my mind because that was just a singular experience. And Chris Burke, who played Quirky,
absolutely changed my life for the better. He made me such a better person. And I remember when I auditioned for Life Goes On. I asked the casting director in the first audition, I'm like, so the person who's played in Quirky, is he really going to have Down syndrome? And she looked at me and she's like, uh, yeah, is that really something? You can act like you have Down syndrome or you don't. And he was the first person I ever spent any time with who had Down
syndrome or anything like that and change my life. And he's, by the way, he's doing well. He's he's still you know, he's he lives in a in like a group home, but he's got his family around him. And I talked to him. I talked to him probably a couple times a year.
So I love hearing that that you stay in touch. Yeah yeah for our generation that that show like changed our generation, But so did.
I know two one Oh.
Honestly, like, it's hard to look at it that way when it's your show. It is you know, you know, like I hear you and you probably hear me, But it's like.
But your show was so gutsy. It was gutsy in so many ways as well, but it was also.
Two kids, thank you.
Yeah, we were really lucky, Like how who gets to do that? Who gets to do that? What a gift?
A moment in time that never be replicated. Really, it's a different time of television making.
And actually everybody told me, everybody told me after forty everything changes in the business, and I was like, oh no, that won't be that won't be my experience, and it definitely does change. We also had the Lovely Pandemic, so that changed a lot of things too. I actually ended up staying home for like really all of it and realized how much my kids needed me. So I told my husband, I'm like, Okay, you work full time now and I'm going to stay home and be a mama
for a while. And that's also probably why we have all these animals too, because I was like, you collected animals, collected animals during the pandemic, so like that's just what happened, makes sense?
Yeah, I did that. We hatched a lot of things, some quails.
Damp Oh did you really how we did a baby quail? I don't think there's anything newterer than that.
Oh yeah, I.
Think animals are the best way to teach children empathy.
I agree with that.
I think you just let.
The animals do the work and boom, you get an empathetic kid because they're around an animal that needs it, needs to you know, you need to feed it, you need to be gentle with it. Like I really think that that is Gosh. My seventeen year old has the biggest heart. She's so loving and so gentle and so patient. I am not those things. I'm like very like, let's get it done, and I'm like very type A and
all the things, and she is not. And I really credit the animals for that of having that effect on her.
Except the cleanup, my mind don't want to clean up.
No, I clean up up.
I clean up and there's all kinds of different poop that I have to deal with, so many different kinds. But it's okay. You know, it's like it's my baby. I don't mind changing the day. It feels a little bit like that when it's your animals. It's like it's fine. So like whenever somebody comes to my bar and we're like, oh, there's got poop, I'm like, yeah.
So you're welcome.
I don't even exactly.
No poop is great. I don't used to love eating goat poop. It was like dessert.
Yeah, it's black beans.
It's fine.